The present invention relates to the subject matter contained in Japanese Patent Application No. 11-094677, filed on Apr. 1, 1999, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communications apparatus such as a facsimile machine which utilizes the Internet or a LAN (local area network), and a communication method employing this apparatus. The present invention particularly relates to a communications apparatus which allows users to confirm a delivery result, and a method for confirming the delivery result.
2. Background and Material Information
A conventional communications apparatus, e.g., a facsimile machine, indicates xe2x80x9cdata transmittingxe2x80x9d on its display panel during a transmission, and when it completes the transmission, this display disappears. Users determine that the data has been successfully transmitted when the display disappears, or when the machine does not print a xe2x80x9cnon-deliveryxe2x80x9d message within a certain period after the transmission.
On the other hand, a facsimile machine linked to the Internet is unable to confirm whether the data has been transmitted correctly and users must assume the data has been successfully transmitted when the transmission is completed. In this respect, facsimiles sent via the Internet are different from facsimiles sent via the PSTN (public switched telephone network). The users thus ask the destination (i.e., recipient) to send a return mail (i.e., e-mail) from the destination-side facsimile machine linked to the Internet to confirm receipt of the data. The users print out the return mail upon receipt to confirm the acknowledgment.
FIG. 1 depicts an output format that acknowledges the data transmission by a conventional facsimile machine linked to the Internet. As shown in FIG. 1, users can acknowledge facsimile transceiving by xe2x80x9cOKxe2x80x9d (as examples No. 22 and 26 show) and confirm a relay transmission by xe2x80x9cR-OKxe2x80x9d (as examples No. 14 and 24 show). However, during LAN communications, although receipt of e-mail is acknowledged by xe2x80x9cOKxe2x80x9d (as example No. 13 shows), transmission of e-mail does not have any means for acknowledgment, as seen in example No. 15 which indicates xe2x80x9c- -xe2x80x9d. Thus, data has been transmitted without an acknowledgment. An output format as shown in FIG. 2 is thus returned from the destination-side facsimile machine linked to the Internet, and the format is printed to confirm the acknowledgment.
The conventional facsimile machine discussed above requires a printout every time a facsimile is transmitted through the LAN, and this printout can be mingled with other receipt data. The confirmation of acknowledgment is thus cumbersome work, and if this printout is discarded, it is difficult to confirm the acknowledgment.
The present invention addresses the problems discussed above, and aims to provide a communications apparatus and method that allow users to confirm completion of a transmission as well as an acknowledgment of the communication through the Internet or a LAN.
In order to achieve this objective, in a communication through the Internet or the LAN, the present invention stores notices of data transmission and data of return mails in a communication control memory provided in a communications apparatus on the transmitter side. The data transmission can thus be confirmed and acknowledged by monitoring the stored data.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a communications apparatus includes an input system that inputs image data, and a transmitter that transmits the image data input by the input system through e-mail. The apparatus also includes a receiver that receives a reply corresponding to the transmission sent by the transmitter, and a storage or memory. The memory stores a transmit result indicating whether the transmission was successfully completed and a delivery result received by the receiver. Both the results are stored in correlation with each other. According to another aspect of the present invention, the apparatus may also include a facsimile transceiver that transmits and receives image data. In another embodiment, the transmitter and the receiver are coupled to a network line, for example the Internet.
The memory may include a table memory that stores the transmit result, which indicates that the e-mail has been successfully transmitted, and a delivery result indicating that the e-mail has been successfully delivered to a destination. Both the results are stored in correlation with each other. The memory may also store certain information independently. Such information includes the delivery result, which indicates that the e-mail has been delivered, time-out information indicating that the e-mail failed to be delivered within a predetermined period, and a waiting status indicating that the apparatus is awaiting the delivery result.
According to another embodiment, when the transmitted e-mail is an error mail, an error code is noticed as the delivery result to the apparatus. According to another embodiment, a transmission time is recorded in the memory.
According to another embodiment, the apparatus also includes a facsimile transceiver. Further, the memory stores the transmit result and the delivery result of the e-mail as well as a transmit result and a receipt result of a facsimile communication. The transmit result and the receipt result of the facsimile communication are recorded in a transmit result column and a delivery result column, respectively, of a table memory in the memory. The apparatus may also include a display that displays information stored in the memory on either a screen or a printed form.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a communications apparatus includes an input system that inputs image data, and a production system that produces a mail header. The apparatus also includes a memory that stores the image data and the mail header, and a mail transmitter that transmits the image data and the mail header stored in the memory through a network line. The apparatus also includes a first memory that stores a transmit result in the memory, a second memory that analyzes a mail header of a return mail from a destination and stores an analysis result in the memory, and an output system that outputs the transmit result and the analysis result from the memory.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a communications apparatus utilizing a network line includes a transmitter that transmits image data via e-mail, a receiver that receives a return mail corresponding to the transmitted e-mail, and a memory. The memory stores header information from the transmitted mail, a notice of transmission completion, and header information from the return mail.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a communication method includes inputting image data, and transmitting the image data together with mail header information as an e-mail via a network line. The method also includes storing a reply e-mail corresponding to the transmitted e-mail, and analyzing and storing a mail header from the reply e-mail received from a destination.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a communication method includes inputting an image to be transmitted as image data, and transmitting the image data together with mail header information as an e-mail via a network line. The method also includes storing a transmission result of the transmitted e-mail in a memory, analyzing and storing a mail header from a return e-mail received from a destination in the memory, and outputting the transmission result and return mail information from the memory.